The New Daemon in the Sand
by Silhouette the Daemon-Wolf
Summary: Read ch4.
1. Chapter 1

Since as far as I can remember, I've always been a slave to this family. I don't remember having a -what the children call them- 'mum and dad'. Parents, I think they called themselves. Yeah, I'm sure that's what they said. I would ask them where my parents were, only I'm not to ever talk unless I'm told to. That makes the voices that much more difficult to ignore.

Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to draw your attention to my miserable excuse of a life here. I guess my mind likes to wander and make me think out loud.

My name is Alexandria Namikaze... At least that's what I was told my name was anyway. You see I don't exactly remember anything before five years ago. All I can remember is waking up in a horrid smelling, dark and musty place. I was chained by the ankle to the bottom of a steel cot, which meant I couldn't go very far from where I was chained up. I wasn't alone in this terrible place though, there were other girls around my age in here with me. They were all dirty and really skinny, just like my own profile at the time.

I had been aware of my existence for almost a week when I was taken to where I stay now. I work for a family that consists of the husband and wife, and two children, a boy and girl.

I don't get anything other than one meal a day and that is usually the leftovers of the food I made my masters the night before for their dinner.

The only thing I'm glad of is that I'm clean. I am told to shower every morning before I start my duties.

I had been planning on running away for a couple of months now, as I'm sick of this life and I want to do something other than be a slave to a greedy family. I had almost everything set, tonight was the night I was going to leave and never look back. I would have nowhere to go to, but I could always roam nearby cities and look for part time work and get a little money for myself. In the distance was the desert from here.

I heard rumours that a hidden village was right in the middle, and that their leader was a man who was around the same age as me. The rumours also seemed to go a little far-fetched as they also said it was the home of ninja who had special abilities. I had always been fascinated with the desert in the distance, so when I heard there was civilisation out there, I felt drawn to it somehow and made it a goal to visit there at some point.

I smiled to myself as I came out from the bathroom from my morning shower. I let my long, dark red hair fall out of the towel that was holding it up on my head and brushed it out to its full length, halfway past my thighs. I quickly towel—dried it as best as I could. The top half was the easiest as my layers were very short. I looked like a sort of punk the way my hair spiked up. My bangs rested just above my eyes and no more with it parted to the right, showing off a rather impressive scar on my left eyebrow. Something else I couldn't remember to have happened.

I looked at myself in the old mirror I was left with and looked at myself. A pale, skinny seventeen year old girl stared back at me with the same expression, but with no emotion in her eyes.

My eyes are very unusual. They are pure silver in colour, with a small ring of red around the pupils. Another thing to add to the list of me being different.

I shook my head and quickly tied my hair up into a high ponytail, letting my fringe do what it liked as I headed up the stairs from my basement room to begin -hopefully- my last day as a slave.

Its was just after seven as I got into the kitchen. Good, nobody was due down for at least another fifteen minutes. I turned the cooker on and prepared four lots of bacon, egg, black pudding and toast just in time for the head of the house to come down, his wife just behind him. The two looked between the food and me before taking a plate each and set themselves down at the dining table, not saying a word as usual.

As the two oldest began eating, the children came in, bickering about how the girl never got to use the bathroom first and the boy making faces at her as she spoke. They immediately stopped as they saw me holding their breakfast plated towards them, before snatching them from me and sitting down beside their parents and resuming their complaining.

I started tidying up the kitchen as I had made a bit of a mess. As I was pouring out some milk for the children, I heard a shriek from the youngest female. I looked up to find her holding a hair in between her fingers. A long red hair...

I froze, not knowing what to do with myself I stood silently with my head down as the husband slowly approached me. I looked up as his shadow covered me and I saw the rage in his eyes. He raised his left arm, his hand balled into a fist as I closed my eyes. I felt a sharp pain on the right side of my face, and as I opened my eyes again I found myself on the floor with him kicking me in the ribs and stomach. I coughed up blood on his last kick.

All of a sudden I felt a huge wave of anger rise up from inside me, begging to be released.

I found myself standing again, much to the disbelief of the family before me. The anger I felt before was slowly fading away again as I noticed the whole family was around me, rage and anger all over their faces as I was disobeying them by standing up again.

I had no idea what was going on with me as I always ended up getting beaten up at some point in the day, but I never reacted, especially the way I did today.

The wife was standing right in front of me, holding onto the knife she had been using to cut up her breakfast and proceeded to strike me with it. I shut my eyes again and held my arm out to try and protect myself from it piercing my skin.

After a couple of minutes of realising I hadn't been hurt, I opened my eyes to look at my attacker. The rage on her face had been replaced with surprise and confusion. I looked closely and noticed a faint glow surrounding her whole body, preventing her from moving. I blinked stupidly and moved my gaze to my outstretched arm to find it also with an aura of red around it. I withdrew it quickly, in fear I was going to get hurt from it, hearing a snapping sound and a blood-curdling scream right afterwards. I brought my gaze to the wife who had tears running down her face and nursing her hand which was... the wrong way round? The husband went into a fit of fury and struck me with the knife his wife had dropped. It was now protruding from my stomach. I watched as blood began to spurt out a little before steadily running down my front and staining my clothes.

Instead of pain from the injury, the rage that had faded away not too long ago had came back tenfold, and as it did, I blacked out.

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><p>'With a new day came new responsibilities' well, that's what my sister had always told me. And those words were what helped me keep my head up high and got me to where I am today.<p>

Ever since I became Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand, I felt that more and more people had began to respect me. Of course, there would always be that little bit of fear in everyone because of the tailed beast inside me and they had it in their heads that one day I'm going to lose control. I am a leader, and because of this huge responsibility I have been training myself to keep my emotions and feelings under control. My sister, Temari and my brother, Kankuro had also helped me out when they saw how genuinely upset at how little confidence my people had in me, all because of the Shukaku our father had implanted inside me.

Nowadays though, things were a lot calmer in the village. I no longer possessed the Shukaku. Sure I died because of it, but a very kind old woman by the name of Lady Chiyo brought me back due to her amazing reanimation jutsu. She is remembered as the heroine of the Sand as she was the one who gave her own life to save me.

I shook my head and focused my thoughts on this day and age. That all happened three years ago, I need to stop being stuck in the past.

It was early in the morning, and I was taking a stroll around the village before resuming my duties as Kazekage for the day. I was at the highest point of the village, watching the sun slowly make itself known to all.

Dawn. The promise of a new day.

Things had certainly changed in the past three years. For one, my village was now in alliances with all neighbouring countries, due to the great war. The village was nearly completely destroyed during that horrible time, but the five great nations came together and helped us rebuild the Sand village into a bigger, better community. Now we have technology that the other hidden village had before us and we keep in regular contact.

Temari was still going back and forth between our village and the hidden Leaf, not only to lend a hand, but also to see her love and soon to be father, Shikamaru Nara.

I knew it was going to happen sooner than later and I accepted the relationship after Shikamaru telling me and Kankuro that he wouldn't let any harm come to her, even if it meant risking his own life for hers. I was proud of who my older sister had chosen, but Kankuro felt completely different. He had ran out of the house in a blind rage, wishing to never speak to her or Shikamaru ever again as he believed it had betrayed trust between us as siblings, and that we always shared our secrets and problems with each other. I guess he forgot that Temari is a woman and would like to keep her love interests to herself until the time is right.

Naturally Kankuro realised how foolish he had been and apologised the next time he saw them and gave them his blessing without a second thought. He is now a part of the ANBU Black Ops. He is on his first mission and wont be back for another couple of weeks as they would be investigating a serious massacre that happened to the city just South west of here.

The place is not home to many people, but it is home to one of the worlds biggest loan sharks and his family. According to a recent news report, this guy had been murdered along with his family in the most brutal way possible, hence the term "massacre". Pictures were revealed to show just how dangerous the criminal was. The entire family had been annihilated , the father who was the shark, had his eyes gouged out, his arms broken in several places and his left leg was missing. The wife had a snapped right wrist and her head was one hundred and eighty degrees the wrong way on her body. Her throat also looked to be ripped wide open with what looked like a set of knifes or kunai.

The two children were killed very similarly to each other. The young boy had been strangled with some sort of spiked chain weapon and had his fingers and toes cut off. The girl was suffocated with something, also with her fingers and toes gone.

The last thing that stuck with me was that the killer was still on the loose and they had no possible description of who it could be.

The report had spooked me. I remember when I did things like that on a whim, but it was because of the Shukaku wearing me down to nothing and taking over whenever he felt like it. In a way the killings looked similar to ways the Shukaku would have made me do it, but he's sealed up somewhere with the other tailed beasts.

I tore my attention away from my thoughts to see that I was at the gate to Suna. I stood and looked out at the never ending desert all around us and smiled. It was short lived though, as I felt a sudden burst of chakra run over me and I looked out to the desert again.

In the distance I saw a small shape, lying in the sand. I called the Suna guards and ordered them to investigate what was out there.

After what seemed like forever, I had a messenger report back with the details of what the figure was and if it was anything to be concerned about.

A young female with nothing but the clothes on her back was lying half dead in the middle of the desert.

I rushed ahead and out to where the rest of the Suna guards were, after telling the messenger to get an emergency medic team out immediately. As I neared the group, I felt the same chakra that brought me out of my thoughts earlier and made me realise where I ended up. It was so strong, but looking at the female on the ground, she looked as if she would die at any minute. She had long dark red hair, ruby red, and a large scar on her left eyebrow. She seemed to be wearing servant clothes and looked like she needed to be fed and watered. She had numerous cuts and bruises all over her body and a deep puncture wound in her stomach.

I sent word back to Temari with my sand, who had just got back to the village late last night to get a room ready at the hospital. The medics appeared soon after and took one look at the female before lifting her and retreating back to the village, with me right behind them.

'What on earth is a young woman doing out in the desert herself? And with no supplies?'


	2. Chapter 2

Sooooo.. heres chapter two, longer than the first which means more story. Enjoy

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><p>I woke up to the smell of fresh air. I tried with all my strength to open my eyes which felt like they had been super-glued shut, but to no avail. Instead I listened to the voices around me. They were very unfamiliar to me, not like my masters at home in the slightest.<p>

"My Lord, is a room ready?" A deep voice sounded from just to the right of me. Obviously male, possibly in his late twenties.

"Yes, I sent word to my sister just as I was nearing your location." A more quiet voice sounded from the left of my person. He sounded younger, maybe about my age, between eighteen and twenty at the oldest. I wished my eyes would open so I could actually see who was talking. Lord? Where in the world am I?

I attempted to move my arms to indicate that I was conscious to the two males that I heard, but it seemed that my body weighed a ton more than it did not too long ago. Wait a minute, what happened? The last thing I remember was I got really angry at my masters, then I blacked out. My head really hurt and my stomach felt really stingy as well. Then it came back to me. I had been stabbed in the stomach by my master. All because of a hair.

I felt myself losing consciousness and drifted off again.

As we were walking back to the village a medical officer in charge of this operation spoke up. "My Lord, is a room ready?"

I sighed to myself and looked at the female on the stretcher beside me. "Yes, I sent word out to my sister as I was nearing your location." I looked over her features.

Extremely skinny, very pale and hasn't got the best clothes on her body at all. I looked to her face and saw a large scar on her left eyebrow, right where her hair was parted. Her hair was a brilliant ruby red colour and really long. It looked to have short layers though as really short parts of her hair spiked up in random directions. Her lips were chapped, and around her eyes were just like mine, except a little thinner.

Right away looking at this girl had me thinking she was an illegal slave, sold off to serve rich families with no say in it whatsoever, but looking at her skin made me think otherwise. She was really clean.

We re-entered Sunas gates and headed straight for the hospital. As the medics ushered the girl into a room, I met Temari, who was waiting for me with a surprised look on her face.

"So, what's all this?" She asked upon my arrival. "I wake up and as soon as I do I have an emergency situation from the Kazekage himself," She watched the medics cart the female into the room available. "Who's that?"

I waited for the room door to close before motioning for my sister to walk back with me to the Kazekage tower. As we were walking , I filled her in on the problem at hand.

"I was out on a morning walk like normal, and I sensed a strange chakra rush towards me. I looked out of the village gates and saw a figure in the desert. Her,"

Temari gasped, probably thinking the same thing as me at this point. "I got the guards to go investigate and got a message back saying she was half dead and in a critical condition, so we brought her back here as soon as we could."

My sister nodded her head in understanding, then went to thinking.

"I know that it was in the best interest to help her, considering she's in a bad way and all, but shouldn't someone check her over in case she's a rogue ninja or something?"

I looked to Temari and sighed. I would have to contact the ANBU to see about that and if she's nothing dangerous, then I've just wasted their time when they could be searching for that killer who's running around still free. "I was thinking, maybe if we wait until she's awake and ask her some questions then. If she doesn't co-operate, then I'll get an ANBU member in to look through her memories in case of deception."

Temari nodded at my theory and looked around. We were now back at my office. I sat down, preparing to fill out paperwork on what has happened as Temari took a book off a shelf ad sat down in a vacant spare chair that wasn't taken up by extra paperwork. I looked down at the stack of work I had laid out for me to do the night before.

"Do you want a hand?"

I looked up to the blond in front of me, who was smiling a gentle, almost motherly smile. I was taken aback.

"Sorry?" I replied stupidly.

"I said, do you want a hand? You look like you'll need it with all this around you."

I looked between my sister, who had just done something very out of character, by asking if I wanted help. That was just not Temari. Maybe her pregnancy is affecting her already.

By the time I had gone to respond, she had already taken a rather large pile of work and sat across from me and was filling out requests and all the silly things that I always shoved to the side due to them not being important. She could sense my stare and looked up at me.

"What? Can't I help my little brother these days?"

I shook my head to myself. "Temari... are you okay? I mean... well.. you know with...?" I gestured towards my stomach, asking an obvious question.

"What? Oh right the baby. Well yeah I guess so. I mean the morning sickness is killing me, and I cant lie on my belly when I go to sleep any more, as it might hurt the baby, but other than that I'm fine." She smiled brightly at me and her smile turned serious. "Why do you ask?"

I turned my attention back to another piece of work and started to write while replying. "Well, its just... you've been acting very out of character today and I was just concerned, that's all."

I felt the happiness practically radiate from Temari as I was suddenly lifted off of my chair and into a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, Gaara! I knew you had feelings! You just have a bit of trouble expressing them, don't you?"

I felt like my back was going to break. Do pregnant women gain the strength of a body builder? Ouch!

She let me go, after realising that I may have stopped breathing and kissed me on the cheek.

"You know, your a lot more considerate than any other man I know, that goes for Kankuro and even Shikamaru as well. Kankuro pretends to listen, then when you ask if he got it all, he just looks nervous and runs away. Shika just says everything's troublesome and goes about his own business like I don't even exist! But you, you sit and listen to my problems, ad ask if I'm okay and all the stuff that I want to have asked and things like that!"

I sat back down in my chair and glanced at my suddenly bubbly sister. She had a huge grin on her face as she took my hand and led me back out of my office and down the stairs of the Kazekage tower.

"Umm, where are we going, Temari?" I asked, not wanting to spoil her good mood. She was practically skipping around, her kimono fluttering around her like a bubble of joy.

"We, are going back to the hospital to see this girl and wake her up." She stated simply. I gave her a confused look which made her continue.

"I don't know why exactly, but I just think that us being in the room will speed up her healing somehow."

I shook my head at just how random my sister was being right now and reluctantly let her drag me back down to the Suna hospital.

When we got inside, I was greeted with numerous bows as usual and many nurses and doctors looking on in concern at Temari dragging me around like a life-size doll. I waved their concerns away and asked what room the girl was in and got a number card to open the room with. I thanked the receptionist, and she gave a bow as Temari ran off with me following behind, my arm feeling like it was going to fall off.

When we got to the top of the stairs, Temari asked me for the room card. When she opened the door, her face went serious as we stepped inside the private room.

Two nurses were attaching drips and all sorts of medication to her. I asked what they were. There was a rather foul coloured medicine being injected into the girls arm at that precise moment, that was nutrients, to give her body a bit more nourishment. There was a bag of clear liquid above her head, with a long tube sticking out of it and attached to her wrist. That was liquids to help hydrate her body. Then there was a blood bag giving her some extra blood due to a huge loss from the wound in her stomach, which I noticed was stitched up nicely. I looked over her body to find that all of the minor cuts and bruises were completely gone. I asked how and the nurse in charge looked at me as if I was nuts.

"Gaara, you must be seeing things," Temari cut in at my question. "She only had that wound in her stomach, nothing else."

I looked between the nurses, my sister and the unconscious female in bed and began to protest before realising that I was I a room full of women and wouldn't win this argument, so I kept my mouth shut. The nurses bowed to the two of us before leaving quietly.

I turned to the female who looked a lot better already, and she had only been in for a couple of hours. We had been informed that the girl had two broken ribs a stab wound to the gut and a broken shin bone. As Temari looked over the girls report at the foot of the bed she put her thinking face on again.

"I wonder how she managed to get all of these injuries?"

I thought back to when I found her in the tattered clothes she was wearing and decided to speak up. "Temari... there's something that's been bugging me since this girls been found,"

This brought my sisters attention to the words I was about to speak and she sat down to listen.

"When I first saw this girl, I the desert, she was really unhealthy looking. She had rags for clothes and she was really badly injured. But she was clean."

I saw realisation dawn on Temaris face at my words. "A slave! She was a slave!... but wait, they're illegal nowadays, but there's someone the ANBU have been tracking down that's selling young girls as slaves. The buyers get the girl and tell her to do anything and if they disobey the slightest then they beat them."

At this, I felt my blood boil. No person should be treated like that. "Do you think she might be one of them?"

Temari nodded, her eyes looking to the girl sadly. "She's in a better place now if she is one of them."

Movement.

In an instant, both of us were at the girls side watching her wake.

Bright silver eyes opened for the two of us to see. But wait, there was a small circle of red just around the pupils. Unusual, but very beautiful.

The girl blinked a few times before looking at the two of us. At the sight of us she began to go into a silent panic. Temari sprang into action.

"Hey, hey calm down. We're not going to hurt you," She spoke gently, as if to a child. I leaned back a little to see if that would help any.

The female calmed down slowly, but I could tell her defences were up as her eyes were shining. I spoke up.

"Do you know where you are, miss?"

She snapped her attention to me at my voice. A flicker of recognition flashed across her gaze before she shook her head slowly. I had a feeling she wasn't from around here.

"How are you feeling?" Temari asked, just as gently as before. The girl simply shrugged her reply.

"You can talk you know, its not against the law," I spoke. "What's your name?"

At the mention that she could talk, the girl seemed to relax a little bit.

"M..my... name is... Alexan...dria...Nami...kaze..." she spoke with a gruff voice. From the sounds of it she wasn't allowed to speak very often at all as a slave. Her surname intrigued me though. Namikaze? I was sure I'd heard it somewhere before. Temari had the same look on her face as my thoughts.

"OK, Alexandria, do you know what age you are?"

I blinked repeatedly as the two strangers who I woke up to began questioning me. I knew it was only natural, seeing as they have no idea who I am. As soon as I was told I could speak, I knew I was nowhere near my masters. I gave them my name as best as I could, which came out all gruff and crackly, like an old man's voice. The two before me nodded, all the while watching my movements carefully.

Where am I? I wake up to see the owner of the younger voice I heard earlier, and a woman next to him with blond hair styled in four pigtails, with her bangs almost covering up a funny looking headband on her forehead. I looked at the symbol. Its was shaped like a gourd. I saw that symbol from somewhere before...

"Alexandria!"

I jumped out of my skin and looked around, terrified out of my wits. The man with the scarlet hair had an apologetic look on his face while the woman spoke.

"Sorry about that, but you were away in a dream," The woman said, still with her voice gentle. "Er, what age are you?"

I looked at the blond woman, then at the red- headed man, looking for any sign of evil intent before finding none. "I'm... seventeen..."

The woman almost fist pumped the air for some reason. As she calmed down, I looked to the other occupant who was saying a lot less than his companion beside her. As I looked at him and he looked back at me I suddenly had a name flash through my mind.

"Gaara Sabaku!" I burst out unintentionally, grabbing the attention of the two strangers and getting weird looks from them. I ignored this and wondered how on earth I knew this guys name. I looked to the blond woman as she was looking at me and another name popped into my head.

"Temari Sabaku!" Again I earned that strange look. I must have looked really excited at randomly coming out with names, so I averted my gaze and looked down bashfully. The two in front of me looked to each other, then to me, then to each other again.

"How.. did you know our names?" the red-head asked, looking unsure whether he should be speaking at all. I shrugged, genuinely confused as to why their names jumped into my head when I looked at them.

The two looked at me, sympathy in one, confusion in the other. The woman, Temari jumped up from her set suddenly and sat right next to me on the bed I was laying on. What happened to me? How on Earth did I get here?

"So, can you stand up?" Temari asked me. I thought about how to answer that question. Yeah I think I could stand, but then if I did try, I might break one of those tube things that are attached to me in the process. She saw me looking at the wires and tubes around me and laughed, knowing what I was thinking. "Ah, right I get it, one minute."

She disappeared, leaving me and Gaara in the room ourselves while she went to go and get a nurse. I looked over him quite openly. His physical description matched the man who was the leader of the hidden village in the Sand. Scarlet coloured wild spiky hair, a long russet jacket with a special attached mechanism to hold his sand gourd, and those beautiful aquamarine eyes, surrounded by black rings.

I couldn't help but feel the need to look over this woman, Alexandria again. She had this strange aura about her, almost familiar to me. It was as if there was two beings in her. One being her, the other being... something else.

I was a bit spooked at how she just came out with our names. I was certain that I had never met this woman before, unless it was when I was younger and when I was in a rampage with the Shukaku trying to take over me, then I would definitely be lost. I caught her looking at me, so I returned the gaze. Her eyes... they were beautiful, unusual, but I couldn't find the strength to pull my eyes away from them. They seemed to have captured me, almost like in a genjutsu...

"You're the leader of the Village Hidden in the Sand."

That did it. I blinked a few times before looking to Alexandria again, asking silently how she knew that.

"Where I came from, in my masters home, I saw you once on television," she looked away sheepishly. "You were not very happy looking."

I found myself chuckling at her statement. "Well when you don't want to be on camera, that tends to happen."

Her 'masters' home? Well that clears up the mystery of her being a slave. I'll not ask any questions at the moment.

Temari returned with a doctor just behind her. The doctor smiled at all of us and bowed to me, like everyone else does, earning a surprised look from Alexandria. The doctor looked over her vital signs, and proceeded to check her bandaged up wounds and broken bones.

"Oh!" The doctor said in surprise when the bandages were all off. Me and Temari looked at her.

"What's wrong?" I asked simply, seeing as the doctor was looking at Alexandria's body in amazement and would only probably answer if words were spoken.

"Well my Kazekage, sir. It seems that your friend here has remarkable healing properties," Me and Temari looked to the young red-head on the bed, looking as puzzled as the rest of us. "Her broken bones are healed completely and that nasty wound in her gut is gone too, look."

We looked to her stomach and only saw a slight pink mark, instead of a hug gaping hole with blood pouring out of it.

"Also her vital signs are right back up to normal, so she is completely fine to be discharged." The nurse finished. Still in wonder at how someone could heal up so fast, the doctor left mumbling about how younger people have amazing immune systems these days. I turned back to Alexandria who was still baffled at why the doctor looked so happy, then looked at Temari at what to do.

"Well, seeing as you're all better now," Temari began, smiling again. "That means you can go home!"

I watched the woman's face fall at Temari's words. Something wasn't right. "Temari, can I speak to you for a moment?" She followed me out the room so I could tell her what Alexandria said to me while she was gone.

"She's a slave," I began simply. Temari looked at me, beckoning me to continue. "I mean it. She told me who I was, and when I asked how she knew, she said that she saw me on TV in her masters home."

I watched my sisters face slowly change to realise what I said. She nodded rather abruptly before turning around and went right back into the room where the girl was waiting. I walked back in behind her in case she was going to ask more questions. What I heard though was not a question, rather a statement.

"Right, then it is settled... Alexandria Namikaze, you are now the newest member of the Sabaku household!"


	3. Chapter 3

Hey guys! I am so sorry about not updating in ages! I had some horrible things happen in my life, then had to move house and all that, but now things are looking up.

Only one little review? Aww unfair, and I'm really trying with this. Oh well.

This is actually quite a boring chapter in my eyes, but you might think otherwise. Anyway, enjoy and please let me know what you think and if i need to fix anything, and maybe even give me an idea for the next chapter if you want.

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><p>It had been three days since I moved in with the Sand Siblings. Their home was situated inside the Kazekage Tower itself, which was enormous. I was given my own bedroom, complete with en-suite bathroom. I was also told that I was welcome to do whatever I liked, as long as I didn't burn the building down.<p>

I was still getting used to having freedom inside a house that was not mine, but I felt safe so that's what mattered to me. I lived with a leader and his older brother and sister who were all considered royalty to the rest of the village. Temari had gone out of her way to get me some clothes as I literally had none and was taken to my new home in a spare hospital gown, before being given a set of Temari's clothes temporarily. She had given me some clothes that didn't fit her anymore as she had grown up. Currently, I had a lilac top on that showed off my shoulders, a pair of black three quarter leggings and the typical Suna footwear. I had my hair tied back in a low ponytail which made my shorter layers in my hair look like it was only shoulder length. I sighed as I walked into the bathroom and looked at my face in the mirror. A pale faced scared little girl stared back at me. Those black markings around my eyes didn't help much with my complexion. Ever since as far back as I can remember I've had these marks around my eyes. They made me look animalistic, like a wolf or something. Around my tear ducts it was as if a spike of black ran out a little, right in the centre it was as if I drew a line down my eyelids and then the same spike at the edges of them, along with a ring that looked like eyeliner.

That's it! Eyeliner! I could ask if Temari had any black eyeliner to cover these marks up, then I won't look so bad. I left the bathroom and hurried to the living room where Temari was lying on the sofa reading a magazine.

"Umm… Temari?" I nervously start. Said kunoichi looked up from her magazine and gave me a questioning glance. "Do you have anything for your face… make-up wise?"

At that Temari smiled and stood up before walking over to me and taking my hand.

Before I knew it I was in the middle of her bedroom.

"So, what is it you need exactly? Foundation? Nah, your skins too pure to need that, maybe… some blush? You know 'cause you're really pale?" I shook my head at these requests, earning a frown from the ninja in front of me.

"Do you have any eyeliner?" I asked simply. She looked at me funny, making me feel as if I'd done something wrong. She walked towards me with a black, brown, blue and green stick of eyeliner each.

"I thought you had your own?" She said as she gestured to my eyes. I sighed and closed them, subconsciously touching my eyelids before telling her about what I was thinking about earlier. After clearing the supposed 'mystery', Temari smiled warmly in understanding. "Ahh, so like Gaara then. He's kind of got the same problem as you. Hmm, I don't see why you would want to cover them up with eyeliner, I think they make your eyes stand out."

She handed me the small black stick regardless of what I would have said and proceeded to head back to her reading. I looked at wall in front of me. My masters always wanted my markings hidden at all times so I always had eyeliner on to cover them up. I never asked questions about it though as I knew I would get beaten for it.

I went back to my room and placed the eyeliner on my dresser untouched before heading out.

I decided a walk through the village would be nice, as it would also help me familiarise myself with the area. I immediately noticed people looking at me and I felt really nervous all of a sudden. I closed my eyes, sighed to myself and began my journey around Suna.

As I walked, I saw some of the villagers bow to me, as they did with Temari and Gaara. I became confused at why and made a note to ask either of the two siblings later on when I got back.

"Hey, kid!"

I turned, sensing the voice was directed at me, to find a middle aged woman with dark brown hair and grey eyes waving at me and beckoning me to go to her. I was weary, but didn't want to seem rude, so I slowly approached her.

"My goodness! You have a lot of hair my dear!" The woman exclaimed while holding up my hair in the ponytail with gentle hands. "Ahh, but I see it hasn't been cut in a very long time. Would you like a tidy up my dear?"

I nodded my head, then remembered. "I would love that, but I don't have any money…" I proceeded to leave, but was held back by the woman who had taken my hand and was leading me inside the building behind her.

"No worries! This one will be on the house!"

I found myself inside a small hair salon. The woman started busying herself with her accessories for cutting hair as I looked around the cosily decorated place. There were four designated areas for clients to be seated and fixed up. Light wooden laminate flooring made the salon look bigger and the red and white tiles added extra brightness and warmth. I found myself smiling softly as the woman came up to me and ushered me over to the first seat and wrapped a silver cloak around me. She then started moving me over to a sink and put my head into a slot in the middle of the sink and told me to relax as she turned the water on.

"Sorry for the rushing about, but I saw you needed my assistance. My name is Miho, what's yours?"

I felt the water gently stroke my hair as it got wet and I closed my eyes in content. "My name is Alexandria."

* * *

><p>It was around five in the morning when I got into my office in the Kazekage tower. I gazed out of the window, watching the sun rise to its highest point, giving off the perfect weather for the morning as usual. My gaze softened when I saw fellow ninja leaving their homes to begin their missions and training.<p>

I still couldn't believe that I was the leader of all of this. Only a few years ago I would have been feared by all who saw me, my name making their skin stand on end at the thought of me releasing the Shukaku to quench his thirst for blood. Now I was respected by almost everyone in the village… my home. Sure there were still a handful who disagreed with the council's decision, but they went about it in a civilised manner.

Three years was indeed a long time, and every morning I still went back to thinking about the past, even though I said to myself too many times before to let it go. I still did not sleep as I was still secretly afraid that something would happen, hence why I was in the office so early.

I turned away from the scene of the new day and sat down, gathering a bundle of papers as I did so and looked over the document on top. It was a request from the council to have a meeting about our newcomer and if there was any new information discovered about her. I held my pen in one hand and massaged my temple with the other.

Alexandria… ever since she arrived in the village the elders and the council had been bombarding me with requests and legal documents regarding her and if she was fitted to be in the village or if she was in league with rogue ninja. I had the matter looked into as soon as she was released from the hospital and she co-operated in giving her DNA as she couldn't remember anything from any more than five years ago. All we had was that she was an illegal slave to a wealthy family who treated her unfairly. Currently the ANBU Black Ops were investigating the matter of the illegal slaves, but apart from that we had nothing.

I denied the request and explained that there was no new news to report before moving onto the next paper.

This went on for a couple of hours, just like every day for me and before I knew it, all of the work I had set out to do was done. I had finished early so I decided to go out for some fresh air and have another walk around the village. I stood up from my seat and left the office, taking off my official Kage robes in the process and putting on a black t-shirt with mesh underneath and black three quarter pants, again with mesh underneath. I attached my kunai pouch to my right leg and left my gourd in my room.

I was met with immense sunlight when I stepped outside, and had to blink and squint my eyes a few times to get used to the brightness. I breathed in deeply and set out.

As I walked along, I was met with the many bows and greetings I usually received when showing my face around the village. I always asked them not to bow to be and that a simple hello was enough, but they insisted otherwise. I met my old student Matsuri, who was helping an old couple move house. She was now a Jounin ninja and specialised in long distance fighting. I saw the Johyo I had taught her to use tied to her waistband and smiled to myself. She spotted me as she looked up and ran over to greet me.

"Hello Kazekage- Sensei, How are you this morning?" She bowed slowly. I saw a faint tinge of pink to her cheeks and sighed inwardly. Her fangirl crush on me something I was used to now, but it did still get on my nerves sometimes.

"I am very well Matsuri, What about you? Are you almost finished with helping this couple moving home?"

Matsuri looked at me, her eyes becoming bigger and glittery, and I just knew I said that in a way that made her think I was trying to ask her out. "Why yes actually, I should be done in about half an hour," She said with a now bright blush. "Why do you ask, Sensei?" she asked hopefully, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Oh no reason really, just so that I know if you can be sent out on another mission shortly as you know we still are rebuilding the village and need as much help as possible." I spoke without really looking at her, but I knew her face fell at that statement.

"Oh, right… yeah I'll be free to help out with that as soon as I'm done here then…" she trailed off as she turned away to finish up. I closed my eyes for a second before continuing on my walk. I knew I sounded cold to her, but I'm not interested in Matsuri, or anybody else for that matter. I've got too many other things to worry about than having a girlfriend on top of it all, I didn't even get home for dinner with Temari and Kankuro on a few nights.

I found myself walking to the outskirts of the village, to where I used to train by myself.I had no idea why, but I felt like a little detour at that moment in time, so just went with it. I got to the area I called 'my spot' and saw that it hadn't changed a bit. A huge cliff shadowed an area just below it and shielded it from the harsh desert sun, which made it the perfect climate for training without getting heatstroke. As I walked closer to the area, I saw someone there. Curiosity got the better of me as I found myself sneaking up to where the other person was. As I drew nearer, I noticed that the person was training here, and from the looks of it, it was pretty intense training with the rocks that were normally nearby being shattered into nearly nothing. I hid behind a huge rock and peeked out from behind it to see Alexandria being the one who was training here.

This stunned me. This girl was a slave. Why is she doing training? And why for far out of the village?

I saw that her hair was reasonably shorter, with it now being just in the middle of her back instead of at her hips. She was also wearing an old outfit of Temari's, which suited her rather well. She was also wearing a pair of black fingerless gloves that I noticed when she was striking her hands out from her.

Even though it was quite obvious that training was being done here, it did not look like she was the one doing the training. It was more like she was dancing. I became entranced with the way she was moving, so free and flowing perfectly with every move. She stopped as I neared her and I figured she had sensed me.

"Gaara? What are you doing out here?" She said getting right to the point. She had her back to me so I guessed she could determine someone by their chakra.

"I'm done for today and decided to come out and see if my old training spot had been getting put to good use," I replied calmly. " But I could ask you the very same question. Why are you here training? You are not a ninja, therefore there is no necessary need to train."

She turned to face me and smiled slightly, looking nervous. "Well, you see… that's quite a funny story actually…"

I raised an eyebrow at her trailing off, which caught her attention and she flinched, making me feel sorry for not remembering that she was still getting used to having freedom and the look I gave her must have triggered a bad memory. I apologised to her and asked her to continue.

"I was actually considering coming to see you today after my training and… well I was going to ask…"

She looked really nervous and I wanted to say to her to hurry up, but decided to be patient and let her go at her own pace. It must be hard asking for something when most of your life, you haven't ever been able to ask for anything at all without getting a beating.

"Well, ask away and I'll see what I can do for you." I spoke out with my features softening a little, to make Alexandria feel a little less anxious. It looked like it had helped as she smiled a little bit and took a deep breath, mustering up all the courage she had.

"I want to become a Suna Ninja!"


	4. Chapter 4

Hey all! Just dropping a final note on this fic to say that I am putting this Story up for adoption. I have realized that the other story I am writing, titled Unknown, is most likely going to clash with this one as the character would have ended up in a similar position. I am sorry for those who have faved it and kept with it until now, but i honestly have no inspiration for this fic, its all on my other ones at the moment.

Anyone who wants to take the story and make it their own, you are more than welcome to, just let me know before hand if you can, Thanks :).


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